Launch

Set up a new product in StackHangar: pick services and accounts, then work through the steps that create items, send values and add DNS records.

The Launch playbook helps you set up everything a new product needs: a project, the accounts it uses, the items that hold its keys, a reminder for each, and where those values go.

Launch never asks for a key on the setup screens. You paste each value later, one service at a time, and it is encrypted on your device before it is saved.

#Before you start

• Unlock your vault. See Unlock your vault.
• On the Free plan you can have 2 projects. A launch creates a project, so if you're at the limit you're told on the last screen and nothing is created. See Plans.
• Sending values to Vercel, GitHub or Netlify from your browser, and adding DNS records for you, are part of Solo. Without Solo every step still works by hand.

#Start a launch

1. Open Playbooks in the sidebar and choose Start a launch. You can also choose Launch a product on the Projects page.
2. Work through the six screens. Nothing is saved until you press Start launch on the last one.

#The six screens

1. Name your product. Enter a Product name and tick the environments the product has.
2. Start from. Choose how to fill in the next screens:
   • Blank: pick every service yourself.
   • A starter: a ready-made set of services, such as a paid web app on Vercel, Supabase, Stripe and Resend, an AI web app with Google sign-in, an AI app with OpenAI, or a marketing site.
   • One of your stacks: services, options, accounts and variable names you saved at the end of an earlier launch.
   • Launch like one of your projects: copies that project's services, accounts, options and variable names. It never copies keys, ids or domains.
   • Start from a .env file: paste or choose a file. It is read in this tab only and never leaves your device. See below.
3. Services. Choose services by category: Hosting, Code, Database, Payments, Email, Domain registrar, DNS, Sign-in and AI. Launch can set up Vercel, GitHub, Supabase, Stripe, Resend, a domain, DNS, Google sign-in, Anthropic and OpenAI. Anything else can be added later as a normal item.
4. Accounts. For each service, choose which of your accounts it goes in, or New account. Accounts that still have room come first.
5. Options. Tick any options a service offers. Under Advanced: variable names you can change the names the values get at your host or CI. Leave a field empty to keep the default.
6. Review. See the project, the items, the reminders and each step, marked Guided (you do it at the provider) or Automatic (your browser sends it for you, with a by-hand fallback if it fails). Press Start launch.

#Start from a .env file

The values stay in this tab's memory until you lock or reload. Because the file was readable as plain text, every value that came from it is marked to be rotated first. Secrets that don't match a service can be kept as ordinary items in the new project. Delete the file from your disk when the launch is done.

#Work through the run

Launch opens a board with your services as groups. The bar at the top shows how many steps are done, a Ready now and All steps switch, the next step and a Finish button.

Typical steps are:

• Sign up at the provider, then Save account with the email or username you used. Prefer one you could hand over if you sold the product.
• Create a key at the provider, then paste it into the step and choose Save value. Domains and subscriptions ask for a date, and optionally a cost, instead.
• Connect a deploy target, so values can be sent there. See Deploy targets.
• Enter public values, such as the domain name. These are saved in the run and aren't secret.
• Send values to the deploy target and redeploy once. See Deploy targets.
• Add DNS records. On Solo, with a Porkbun DNS target set on the domain item, Add these records for me shows exactly what will be added, then adds it after a passkey check. Otherwise the step lists the records to add by hand.

Each step can also have Skip (optional steps only), Remind me, Undo once it's done and Explain this step.

#Waiting steps

A step shows Waiting when it depends on another step. It lists what it is waiting for, and each item is a link to that step.

Some steps wait on something outside StackHangar, such as Stripe approving your account, Resend verifying your domain, or DNS records taking effect. They are optional. Instead of Skip they offer Continue while it waits, so you can finish the launch and come back.

Steps still waiting appear on Home under Waiting on you, with a Waiting outside badge for the outside ones. Remind me lets you pick Tomorrow, In 3 days, In a week or a date. A launch can hold up to 20 reminders. The date is saved in your encrypted run. The server holds only an opaque ID and the send date, never a step, service or project name.

#How a step ends

When a step sends or changes something, the run records how it was done:

The summary of a finished run says Sent to a target, Updated at a target by hand, or Not sent to a target (skipped). The outcome labels Sent, Sent and redeployed, By hand, Not sent and Skipped are used on an agent's secret request page. See Secret requests.

#Finish

Finish is available once every required step is done and the rest are done or skipped. It closes the run as Completed and shows a Launch report: the services and accounts, the items created and their reminders, the monthly cost from subscriptions, and anything still yours to do outside StackHangar. You can then Save as a stack to reuse the choices.

If you stop early, Abandon run closes the run. Steps you did stay done and items you saved stay in your vault. To pick the run up later instead, just leave it: it stays under In progress. See Runs.

#Add a service to an existing project

On a project page, Add a service runs the same steps for one more service. It asks for the service, the account, options and how it connects to the project, then Review and Start. It only saves the run. Nothing is created until you work through the steps.

#If something goes wrong

• A planning message on the Review screen names the service it's about. Go back to the screen it refers to and change it.
• If StackHangar's list of services changed after you started, the run offers Update this launch. Steps you already did stay done where they still apply.
• If a send fails, the step shows why and a by-hand route. See Deploy targets.

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